Accomplishments on both hikes

Last year I decided that I wanted to go on a hike with my weight watchers group. We went to a trail that wasn't extremely difficult called the wind cave trail, at usery park path. The thought of going on this hike both excited me and scared me at the same time. I couldn't wait to test my body after the 7 months on weight watchers, and I didn't know how I would feel if I couldn't make it all the way to the top. Having my wife, and new friends with me helped me to just relax and accept my abilities and strengths that I had then. I however did not make it all the way to the top, but where I stopped my friends and I named it "Victory Rock". I knew that this was indeed a victory for me because I did everything to get to that spot. I did not feel bad that I didn't get all the way to the top, I rejoyced in my ability to get to this "Victory Rock", and Sudenly it became my rock. Here are some of the pics from that excution. Unfortunately my camera died before I got to "Victory Rock", so I don't have a picture of that.

This is of my wife and I at the beginning of the tail.

Some friends and I taking a rest.

Carly and I about halfway of the mountain, and also the last picture before the camera died.

Knowing that I did not make it this time I knew that I would want to do this again, I knew that as my body got stronger I would want to make it to the top, and rejoice there. So about a month ago I got invited from my work to go do this Hike again. This time I made a goal to get to "Victory Rock" and stand on it, knowing that I would make it further this time. Well thats exactly what happend I got to "Victory Rock" and I wasn't even that tired. I cantinued to push forward, and I did it, I made it all the way to the top, and here is a picture to show that I was there.
Juan Te and I at the wind cave trail.

weigh in from 6/6/2011

Here is last Mondays weigh in. The previous week I was 312.8 and I weighed in this week at 305.6. That is a loss of 7.2. :)

I was so excited to see this loss because it has been a long time since I have seen a 7.2 loss. Now I only have 6lbs to go until I am under 300lbs :).

Enjoy.

Before weight watchers and Now

Before I continue on sharing other neat things that I hadn't posted here is a Before and Now picture of my wife and I. Hope you enjoy.

Most recent weigh in

So I wanted to get my last weigh in on here so that you guys could see where I am now. I do have another weigh in today though, but I will get that up as soon as possible.

weigh in 5/30/2011, my previous video that I uploaded I weighed 439.8, now I weighed in at 312.8, that is a loss of 127lbs since my last post. Enjoy :)

Long Time No See

So it has been a long time since I have been on here to up date my blog. Some of you may have wondered whether I have quit my healthy life style endeavor. The answer is no. I am still very active, and enjoying my healthy lifestyle. That means that I have a lot of weigh ins that I have video taped to be posted, but I am going to try and think of a way to just make one big video and post that, this way you can see the weight loss.

You are probably wondering... well... how much have you lost now???

I have now lost a total of 277.2, so now I weigh a total of 312.8. I will upload my latest video as soon as I can, and then work on the big video of the weigh ins.

Now that that is out of the way, there has been so much that has happened since we have last talked.

First of all, and probably the biggest thing is, my wife is no longer going to weight watchers as a member... I know I know, what!!! how could that be!!!.

Well before you have a Myocardial Infarction, I just want you to know that she is pregnant, and you cant be a member of weight watchers while you are pregnant. Not to worry she fully intends on rejoining weight watchers as soon as the baby is born, which will be next month on July 20Th. We are both really excited to have our daughter come and be a part of our lives.

Okay now that that is out of the way, on to other things.

Well I have now been following the weight watchers program for over a year now. I can't believe that it has been that long. It seems like just yesterday that I joined, tipping the scale at 590lbs.

Healthy living continues to be a mental process every day. Some easier than others, but the mental is always there. Someone once asked me, "whats the secret?". Well I don't know that there is just one secret but I said, "for me, I had to wrap my mind around this. Deciding that it was going to be difficult, but there were no excuses big enough, and there still aren't. This is something that anyone can do, it is just a matter of deciding that you are going to do it."

I used to be the biggest excuse giver out there. Here are some examples of excuses that I used to say to my self, when I wanted to self sabotage.
I had a hard day today, I deserve this.
It's my birthday, I deserve to eat whatever I want.
It's the weekend, I can get back on on Monday.
It's any ones birthday, I can eat to celebrate with them, I don't want to seem weird.
My family is getting together...
I'm going on Vacation...
It's a holiday...
My favorite spots game is on...

You get the idea, well I have learned that there is always a reason not to make healthy choices. The thing is, is for all of these occasions, I can enjoy food. I just don't go overboard. What I mean by that is, I can have those foods that I crave, but I just have one serving of them, or find healthier substitutes for those good foods. This has helped me immensely go through this journey. All of the sudden the excuses are not valid.

Okay well I guess you probably get the point :).

There is still so much to share, but I am going to space it out and put them in other posts. So I promise it will not be a month before I post again. So I say until next time, blog friends.

P.S. Is there something that you want to know from me? Please feel free to ask and I will include it in a post.

I lose 10 lbs

Sorry it took me so long to get this up here. Well as you all know the last time I weighed in before this weigh in I gained, so the next whole week I was wondering if I was going to gain again. Well I got to the center to weigh in, and I was wrong I lost 10lbs. So here is the video.

weigh in date 10/4/2010: previous week I weighed in at 450.2 and I weighed in at 439.8 for a loss of 10.4 lbs and a total loss of 150.2. :)

My first gain!

We all knew it was coming, so here it is.

I was not expecting this at all, and I thought I was mentally prepared for it. Little did I know that the fears would come back, and full force.

For about a month now, I have been having recurring nightmares that I go to sleep and wake up 590lbs, and in my dreams there is nothing I can do about it.

No matter how well I followed that plan in my dream, I still gained. Even though I know that is just a dream, I still had to talk my self out of feeling that way.

When I went to weight watchers and stepped on the scale, and saw that I gained 3.2lbs, I felt for the first time that sinking feeling that I often had in my dreams.

Before you start wondering if I went off plan, or if I ate something that I should not have, just let me clarify that I did not. I followed the plan to a T, and it was just my week to gain.

For the whole week I kept wondering; Am I going to lose this next week? Will I gain? It was definitely a learning experience.

You see if someone else came up to me and told me that they gained for the first time, and they followed the plan. I would ask them to look at how far they have come. I would have said that it was ok, and that the next week they would do better.

Why couldn't I grasp this for me. All I could see was the gain.

So after leaving the meeting, I called my weight watchers leader and had the opportunity to talk to her about it. She told me to look past it, and to think of how far I had come. Think of what I would say to other people.

I wasn't having any doubts about the plan, and I was not even close to thinking that I needed to stop eating right. That would be silly on my part. I just kept doing exactly what I needed to do.

I do believe that this gain will help me be prepared for others that might come, because there are going to be other hiccups. This is a life style not a diet. This is a healthy way of living, and weight loss comes along with it. I was still 450.2, that is such a dramatic change from 590, and I will never be back there, EVER!!!.

I wanted to share this with you, to show that it does happen along the way, and that yes this is a learning process, and every experience will teach us, it's our job to learn from our experiences.

Learning from our experiences is something that I am working hard to do. Now I will be better equipped to sympathize with someone who has had a gain, and I will hopefully be able to help them see through it.

Just because there was a hiccup does not mean this plan does not work. It works, I am proof of that, one gain and I am still significantly lower than my starting weight.

Here is the video of the gain, the week before I was 447.0 and this weigh in I weighed in at 450.2.

Enjoy. :)